I have a contrarian view that as a private company Firefox has a freedom to do whatever with the money as they see fit . Just because they are a non profit, does not mean that they need to listen to recommendations on how to best run their company. They know that they would be dead in the water if not for google’s money. So their loyalty lies in keeping google happy and their money flowing .
If I was on the board of directors of Mozilla, my main ask from the CEO would be to ensure that the money flow from google does not stop.
If that means that google decides what features make it into Firefox so be it.
Google money is only guaranteed in so far as Firefox keeps its market share. Do you think Google will still be sending them money once their market share is close to 0%? Keeping Google money flowing should be balanced with growing their market share, if only to keep Google money from flowing. Unfortunately, keeping Google happy is orthogonal to growing their market share as what most Firefox users want is basically Brave with more freedom to install extensions. They're getting neither of these right now.
Some people say that Google will keep sending them money no matter what as a defense against monopoly accusations but it is doubtful this would stop the billion fines from EU and others, it hasn't in the past.
If I was on the board of directors of Mozilla, my main ask from the CEO would be to ensure that the money flow from google does not stop.
If that means that google decides what features make it into Firefox so be it.